Jo-el

Chapter 11 JO-EL

“The raised ring at the edge of the collar of the smart-suit has another function. It’s controlled by the belt attachment at your waist, which links into the main-frames around the planet.”

“How many?” I butted in.

“What?”

“How many main-frames, as you call them?”

“Oh, nineteen. The Cirion word for them translates more literally into base stations. It’s all the same. But they are computers that you would understand, I’m their conduit. Anyway, the smart-suit collar. Just as you can project an image of any type of clothing you are wearing, you can project a different facial look.”

“I can change my face?” I exclaimed, it gets better.

“Basically, yes.”

Back to being dumfounded. Wow! That’s incredible I thought. The implications were unfathomable. I could hide in plain sight. Commit any offence, change your appearance. With the smart-suit, it was limitless. In the wrong hands this stuff would be priceless. How could society function with this stuff? The police would be so screwed, their job quite simply impossible.

“So, you want to try it?”

“Sure.” I answered.

“Okay, so it’s all done by thought. Pick a word or phrase to tell the computer you are changing your face. Then give it some parameters and it will take care of the rest.”

I thought ‘change face’. Why complicate the procedure? Then imagined a young George Clooney, maybe with a touch of Daniel Craig. Definitely saw myself as an American James Bond. Inside I was as excited as child with a new toy.

Sally produced a mirror out of nowhere and I stared in disbelief. Holy crap I had hair and my features were well I guess a cross between Clooney and Craig. I was one good looking dude. I think I even fancied myself. A wide grin crossed my face and I reached up to touch my new locks. That was a disappointment, didn’t feel like hair at all. I looked over at Sally.

“Nothing’s perfect,” she said. “Try some other looks, get used to changing and make sure you fit the clothes to the look.

“Can I go black?” I enquired with interest.

“Sure!”

I changed to having black skin, sticking with the movie star theme. I went with a cross between Idris Elba and Harry Belafonte, when I viewed myself in the mirror I was blown away. Most attractive black man on the planet. After a moment I checked my hands and arms, they too had changed. Would look pretty stupid otherwise.

“What about my voice and accent?” I asked. I’d lost my Irish accent many years ago, but most Americans recognized I was from somewhere. When I went home to Ireland, they thought I was American.

“The computer will change it to match your look.”

I played around for half an hour or so, alternating from Caucasian to Hispanic to Middle Eastern, then to American Indian, with the full pony-tail, to Asian, that didn’t feel right for me at all and back to Caucasian. Absolutely incredible! Sally watched me indicating whether she approved or disapproved. She would frown or smile or give me a thumbs up or thumbs down. We were having fun.

“Can the Cirion people do this?” I asked.

“Of course,” Sally replied. “They also like bright skin colors.” Oh, right, I remember when Ka-el was showing me that video of the people of Cirion, many were green, must have been the color-du-jour.

“I guess they don’t have much racial tension?”

“Absolutely none,” she said. “Amazing that technology solved the race issue, isn’t it? But that was a long time ago on Cirion.”

“What about crime?” I asked. “If a criminal can change his appearance how would he or she be found?”

“Just about eradicated. The computer monitors everyone from birth. There are still acts of violence but one hundred percent are caught and punished.”

“So, do they have police?”

“No, or planetary military. No crime, no wars for millions of years. With the ability to adopt any racial look, the whole reason to conquer was eliminated.”

“But war is invariably a battle of power between megalomaniacs, it’s an ego thing. The proletariat just get to do the fighting and dying.”

“There aren’t any weapons to fight with and if some crazy person started to manufacture weapons it would be discovered in no time. You can’t hide that stuff. Anyway, nobody is going to fight for you. There’s no poverty, no underclass, no need to get all upset about your neighbor’s wealth. In a society where you only work if you want to and food is abundant, robots take care of your needs. Health is just about guaranteed. Sex is available whenever you want it, war is just not a consideration. It’s banished to the history books.”

“What about differences of opinion?” I asked. “People must disagree.”

“Sure they do. But nothing major. Maybe, which sports team is best, which food tastes better, what entertainment should win the awards. Nothing to fight about.”

“Sounds like paradise. Nirvana. Too good to be true. I would love to see it. I only wish Earth could be like that.”

Sally smiled.

“It’s been like that for tens of millions of years on Cirion, it’s accepted. But we must finish this part of your instruction. You need to pick a look that you will use consistently outside of here. One that will become recognized by the rest of the world.”

“I do?” I enquired. I was thinking this through. Why couldn’t I just change constantly.

“Keep the changes to blend in when necessary, to hide when you need to. Ka-el believes this will be best.”

“Oh well than, Ka-el has spoken, what more do I need to know? Okay,” I said.

I went with the Clooney-Craig guise. Looks wise it was lightyears ahead of my bald scalp and podgy face. Plus, it made me look twenty years younger. Who wouldn’t want to be back to their thirties?

“So what are you going to call yourself.”

“What’s wrong with Dave?”

“Nothing is wrong with Dave, but you need your alter-ego to be completely separate from who you are now. I think you’ve already figured out that you will be a target for many unsavory characters.”

That was true. Just being able to call up data on everybody on earth and delve into all history was power beyond belief.

“Okay,” I admitted. “What name does Ka-el think I should go with? I mean he’s the boss, right?” I was being flippant.

“Well, as you asked,” Sally grinned wide, her tone soft and pleading. They had already decided on a name; it was so damn obvious. “How about Jo-el?”

She pronounced it with the Jo separate from -el. Didn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out where that’d come from.

“That’s it!” I said. “One word.”

“With the hyphen.”

“Just like Ka-el, with the hyphen,” I replied. “What does that make me his son?”

“Only by name. But it’s up to you, Dave.” She threw me her most persuasive smile.

I considered it for a while, but in my heart, I knew I was going with Jo-el. I mean these guys had put a hundred million years into this venture, I was the newbie. Plus, what did it matter to me, I was Dave Murphy and nothing was going to change that. Any different name was going to seem weird, whatever it was. Jo-el was right up there with bizarre, but with all this craziness and farfetched technology Jo-el appeared to fit right in.

“Okay,” I smiled and did a twirl, “let me introduce you to Jo-el, super-sleuth from the planet Cirion.” Jeez, it sounded totally ridiculous and cheesy. Who was I kidding.

Sally was beaming. “Take a break, go out and try some new characters. But leave Jo-el hear for a while.

“Why?” I enquired.

“More instruction.”

“More!”

She smiled warmly, “the best is yet to come.” Sally disappeared.